The Watercooler - Series One
This first series of The Watercooler features stories about sauna etiquette, nurse-patient relations, Trans-Tasman cricket rivalry and urination. The web series is based mostly on yarns provided by the show’s Facebook audience, supplemented by creator and star Mike Minogue’s own sauna story. The allegedly true stories are reenacted by a cast that includes Jonathan Brugh, Cohen Holloway and Abby Damen (The Māori Sidesteps). Each story is introduced as a chat over the office watercooler, with the storyteller and their audience also playing the main characters.
Jane Thomas John (née Dyver)
Actor Jane Thomas John co-starred in the Roger Donaldson-directed After the Depression, part of pioneering anthology series Winners and Losers. She went on to roles in dramas Close to Home and Radio Waves, and did a stint on Shortland Street. She has also acted in and produced dozens of commercials. Thomas John runs public speaking consultancy Now You’re Talking.
Glyn Tucker
Being a big man with a “face like the map of Ireland” made him an unlikely starter, but in the mid-70s Glyn Tucker was one of New Zealand’s best known screen personalities. The larger-than-life character was a racing guru, and also a popular radio then TV presenter: his television roles ranged across sports commentator, punting pundit, crooner and light entertainment show host.
Danny Mulheron
Danny Mulheron has come at comedy from almost every angle: as a writer, as a director, as co-creator of the politically-incorrect Seven Periods with Mr Gormsby, and from inside a hippo suit. But laughter is not the whole story. Mulheron has also acted in Close to Home and Roche, presented for car programme AA Torque Show, and directed everything from documentaries (The Third Richard) to Rage, a tele-movie on the 1981 tour.
Rodney Bryant
Rodney Bryant was one of the stars of the heyday of regional television news. In the early 70s he became a Canterbury institution fronting The South Tonight with Bryan Allpress, and returned to host The Mainland Touch in the early 80s. He moved on to TV talkback, then children’s current affairs with The Video Dispatch, before leaving TV for a twenty year run in communications for the Dunedin City Council.
John Earnshaw
English cameraman John Earnshaw moved downunder in 1975, just as the local screen industry was hotting up. A director of photography on hundreds of commercials, he shot two feature-length projects: cult movie Angel Mine, one of the earliest entries in the Kiwi movie renaissance, and TV movie A Woman of Good Character. He passed away on 3 March 2014, leaving behind him a passion project involving a mysterious Boeing aircraft.